Friday, February 28, 2014

Meet
the brave and fearless Visola; a woman unlike any you've ever
encountered. Her wit and humor take her through the darkest of dangers
with a smile always on her face--and her smile only grows larger as the
odds become more impossible. With no concern for her own safety, Visola
dives headfirst into the throes of battle to protect the people and
country she loves, even if it means facing her worst enemy--the one man
who can get inside her head and break her down like no other: her own
husband...

There
is no divorce in the undersea kingdom of Adlivun. Marriage is a bond
that lasts until death--even if death comes in several centuries, and in
that time your spouse happens to become your sworn enemy. This is the
conflict that General Visola Ramaris faces when she learns that the
mighty Vachlan is behind the attacks on her kingdom. She has sworn to
protect Adlivun with her life, but long ago, she also swore to love and
honor her husband...

Visola
must choose whether she will destroy Vachlan once and for all, or
attempt the hardest thing conceivable: communication. After two hundred
years of desertion, she knows she can never forgive him. When he
threatens the person dearest to her, she must take action. Confronting
Vachlan on enemy territory would be nothing short of suicide. She knows
that if she falls into his custody, the deranged mercenary would relish
torturing her and making her lose her own sanity.

Princess
Aazuria forbids Visola from taking matters into her own hands. She will
do anything it takes to protect her friend from the man who wants to
crush her. Alas, Visola is a crazy, uncontrollable warrior with the
blood of Vikings in her veins. Why would she ever consider doing the
safe and predictable thing?

EXCERPT

When Aazuria entered the room, her eyes were immediately
drawn to Visola’s wild red hair, which had recently been a lustrous mass of
audacious curls. Now, her hair was limp. It hung against her head flat, frizzy
and defeated. Aazuria’s eyes darted to the warrior’s sunken cheekbones and
gaunt face. She saw the bruises on Visola’s neck before her eyes traveled
further to the withered, wasted limbs. Every visible part of her friend’s body
was covered in fresh scars. She saw the bandaged hands. Visola had been starved
and tortured. Perhaps in these modern times, even under the surface of the
sea, kings, queens, and the aristocracy had close to zero significance. Perhaps
the words and decrees which left Aazuria’s mouth would have minimal
consequences. No one in the throne room felt this way as they awaited Aazuria’s
judgment with bated breath. Sionna was standing aside, with her arms crossed.
The newly-crowned queen gripped her husband’s sword tightly in her fist as
Trevain and Elandria entered the room behind her. Aazuria shifted her eyes to the man standing beside her
friend. Her face was expressionless.“Approach me, Vachlan,” she whispered. The man began walking toward her. Although his stride was dignified,
there was hesitation on his face. Visola began speaking, pleading words which
Aazuria could not hear over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. When Vachlan was close enough to strike, Aazuria gazed at
him with death in her eyes. “Kneel,” she commanded him. Her chest was rising and falling
perceptibly. Vachlan knew that this would be a very unwise thing to do,
but he owed it to Aazuria. He owed it to Visola, and to Adlivun—the nation he
had once called home. He lowered his
head and dropped to one knee before the queen, saluting her across his chest.
His eyes were level with the sword she held, and he could see the veins bulging
through her translucent pale skin from how tightly she clutched it.“It would be futile to order you punished,” she said slowly.
“No one can even attempt to hurt you as much as you have hurt her.”“I know,” he answered quietly.“But it is my duty to try.” She struck out with her sword, slicing the air until the
blade collided with his face, knocking Vachlan off his knees and onto the
floor. Aazuria could vaguely hear Visola screaming for her to stop, but she was
already standing over Vachlan and forcing the tip of her sword between his
teeth. Her previous strike had resulted in a huge bleeding gash along the side
of his handsome face, but it had not been enough to kill him. She was poised to
finish the job. Vachlan moved his tongue against the steel, tasting the
freshly-sharpened metal edge garnished with the metallic taste of his own
blood. It is rare that the wine so
perfectly accompanies the main dish, he thought as he swallowed the coppery
fluid accumulating in his mouth. Kind of
like a German Pinot Noir. He looked into the azure eyes of Adlivun’s queen
and realized that this was no longer the innocent, charitable philanthropist he
had known hundreds of years ago. She was hard. He wondered what percentage of
the tempered rage behind her eyes he was responsible for generating.“One reason.” Aazuria was demanding. “Give me one convincing
reason that I should not thrust my blade directly through your skull.”

Nadia Scrieva

Nadia
Scrieva lives in Toronto, Canada with no husband, no kids, and no pets.
She does own a very attractive houseplant which she occasionally
remembers to water between her all-consuming writing marathons.

Forgetting
who you are, your ambitions, your lover is crippling. Remembering,
embracing your purpose with a new sense of determination is more than
empowering. It's soul seizing. Charlie Myers is embarking on a
life-altering path that will cause the damned to humble in silence…

One
night, just a few friends how could it go so wrong? That was the
question Charlie was asking herself when she awoke in the ER. Outwardly
nothing was wrong with Charlie, she was a vision of perfect health, but
Charlie knew something else was wrong, wickedly wrong. That fearful
notion became even more gripping when her mind began to parade haunting
visions of entrancing emerald green eyes, laced in black, before her.
When she felt a hole in her heart, when the music she drowned her fears
in began to amplify the ache in her soul, and caused her to crave an
embrace she thought she never knew.

Charlie
knew then that part of her was stolen. She was missing memories. Those
memories were sacred. They held the key to her sanity. They told her
that the sinister whispers, and the shadows that came to life before
her, were not as ominous as she felt they were. They caused her to
forget the one talent that allowed her to face the darkness that haunted
her every waking hour. They also masked a much deeper bond, the face of
the one that had stolen her heart, long before that tragically blinding
night.

Charlie
wanted to stay in NY, fight her demons where she found them, and ensure
that her true home remained a sanctuary. Fate had a different plan in
mind. Against her will, Charlie was sent to Salem to live with her
sister. Within that small town Charlie found her memories…and so much
more.

Her story begins now.

EXCERPT

“What’s going on?” I asked nervously, hitting ‘Pause’ on my phone
as I watched him push the seat back so his legs could have more room.

“I told you I’d tell you how to get back,” he said, smiling faintly.

Every part of me was tingling. Yet, I was frozen in place. I had no idea how I was going to focus well enough to drive.

What would I do if I had to fight these shadows in front of him? I was horrified.

“Yeah, but I thought you meant follow you,” I said, trying to take in a breath after I said the words.

“I wanted to ride with you,” he said, pulling his belt on.

As he leaned closer to me to fasten it, I could smell the addictive
aroma of his cologne. I knew that scent. My mind was firing off images
of him at warp speed. His scent, his eyes, his energy, every ounce of
him was magnifying fantasies I could not comprehend in the state I was
in.

“Just for the record, you’re only my second passenger. Third, if you count my teacher,” I said, putting the car in drive.

“Duly noted.”

I caught myself staring into his enchanting eyes. His dark lashes
framed the most alluring color I’d ever seen. It was like they were
intended to be black, but a shade of the most perfect green had
shattered the black canvas that they were.

Eyes that had haunted me for days...

He stared back at me with almost the same wonder, then he quirked a slight grin. “That way,” he said, pointing to the left.

Obviously I was alone in my fascination. Surely if we were anything
like my minds eye was telling me we were in some forgotten past he
would have said something.

Unless. Unless it was a bad past.

The tinge of pain in my heart let that dark thought enter my mind.

I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. I tried to smile through
it as I turned the wheel. I crept down the gravel driveway, fighting
the glare of the headlights coming from his Hummer. Just before I
reached the road, he reached up and moved my rearview mirror, taking the
torture of the lights away. He then gently grasped my ear buds and
pulled them out. His warm fingertips brushed against my skin, and it
took everything I had not to faint. I thought I heard him sigh, just
after he took in a deep breath. Those long fingertips of his lingered a
little longer, more than likely a second or two, but it felt like hours,
then they slid down my neck taking the cords from my ear buds with
them.

I angled my eyes at him to see if I had the same effect on him that he clearly had on me.

“You have to be able to see and hear if you’re going to get us
home,” he explained, relaxing into his seat. He bit his bottom lip as he
bathed me in his smoldering gaze. We said a thousand words at that
moment. Words I could not hear, but wanted to.

Jamie Magee

I'm an obsessive daydreamer. Lover of loud alternative music.
Addicted to Red Bull. I love to laugh until it hurts. Fall is my
favorite season. Black is my favorite 'shade.' Strong believer in the
saying: there is a reason for everything, therefore I search for 'marked
moments' every moment of everyday...and I find them. Life is beautiful!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Willow
Haywood has always been trapped between the worlds of the Light and the
Dark. Her waking hours are plagued by her ability to feel the emotions
of those around her. No matter how inward she draws, she cannot shut out
the feelings of others. Sometimes she will see images - echoes of other
people and places - that she can enter to influence the emotions of
people she has never met.

By
night, Willow experiences her only escape from this terrible insight -
entering into the world of dreams. Most of these dreams are shared in
blissful silence with a stunning blue-eyed boy. But every new moon she
lives through something much darker: a horrific nightmare shared by
another mysterious boy who is always shrouded by shadows.

One
night, this shadowy figure invades her dreams outside of his appointed
time. In this new nightmare, Willow is marked; a mark which follows her
into the waking world and sets her on a momentous path through light and
darkness, through fragmented myth and half-truths, through past lives
and disturbing family secrets, all in the face of the ever-dominant
Zodiac. What she finds will endanger the lives of those closest to her
and will force her to make a decision that will change her world
forever.

EXCERPT

I felt a blanket of peaceful love with a sense of urgency. The
night air in front of me began to move; it looked like a wave gently
swaying with a current. A thin light began to emerge then Landen stepped
through the wave. I felt the air leave my lungs and adrenaline rush
through every part of my body as my heart violently hammered in my
chest.

“Landen…” I breathed.

In the darkness, I could see his haunting blue eyes widen, we were
both soaked in the emotion of disbelief, along with the fear that this
wasn’t real.

In that beat of my heart he’d reached my side. His hands were
trembling ever so slightly as they cradled my face, and his thumbs graze
the flesh of my cheekbones. He was staring at me like I was a forbidden
fruit, like I was every sin in the book, desire washed over that
lasting look as he leaned in and let his lips frame mine. When we melded
the flesh of our lips together, his hands fell from my face and slowly
waved down my body, embracing my flesh, I was doing the same to him. He
was warm, he was on fire, I could hear his breaths, hear the sweet sound
of our kiss, the way our clothes were moving under our touch. He was
real. He was in my arms, and he was driving me wild. That first kiss was
nothing compared to this, that was a dream, it was fleeting, it was
something that could end at any second, this—this touch, this emotion,
this pulsing of my soul was eternal.

He pressed our bodies together and held me with more strength than
he had ever displayed. We both sought air more than once, but the other
moved closer as soon as that gasp was taken. His warm tongue was
uninhabited yet sensual as it danced with mine. I was devouring every
sensation he was giving me and wanting more, so much more.

I was trembling with passion, I think he misunderstood that, he
slowed our kiss, as one arm went around me and the other cradled my
face. His thumb reached to my lips just as his kiss ended, he tenderly
caressed the moist, swollen flesh he found there.

“I found you,” he said with the lips of an angel. His voice was
deep and entrancing, those three simple words sounded like poetry as he
spoke them.

His eyes danced over my image, “I love you.” he said as he leaned
in and kissed me once more, this was a sweet kiss, only lips, only warm
sensual lips.

Jamie Magee

I'm an obsessive daydreamer. Lover of loud alternative music.
Addicted to Red Bull. I love to laugh until it hurts. Fall is my
favorite season. Black is my favorite 'shade.' Strong believer in the
saying: there is a reason for everything, therefore I search for 'marked
moments' every moment of everyday...and I find them. Life is beautiful!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Nathaniel
West’s mother is dead, his father a lost cause. Anger has become a
way of life, until he meets and falls in love with Cora Ewell. Only
Cora has a secret, one that could kill them both.

An
age old dark magic resurfaces and it becomes a race against time for
Cora and Nate to find the long buried secrets to saving everyone they
love and each other.

After
a near fatal accident leaves Nate in limbo, he must find a way to get
through to Cora before time runs out and she is forced into life
eternal with the evil wizard, Elias Stafford.

Excerpt:

I
felt insignificant among the forest of tall, needle-like trees. Tree
roots, covered in a thick green moss, erupted from the ground like
long twisted fingers. A fine dewy mist hung low to the ground and
rays of sunlight speared through the dense canopy. The path that had
brought me to this point had now become nothing but a trail of
crushed leaves and forest litter.

Which
direction had I come from? Trees, mist, and fog enveloped me. My
throat constricted. I needed to get out of there. I searched for my
footprints to head back the way I’d come. I found them straightaway
and was about to make for home when I felt a curious prickle on the
back of my neck—that weird sense that someone was watching me.

While
I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, my instincts told me
something or someone had entered my little bubble of personal space.
There was a familiar scent in the air, out of place in this earthy
forest, the sweet perfume of roses.

I
stood motionless, willing the entity out of its hiding spot. A
movement, a blur, the rustling of leaves, then nothing. This place
was messing with my head and I’d been here less than five minutes.
Convinced my brain was playing tricks, I took one last look over my
shoulder, then trekked back into the forest, not sure whether that
was the right direction.

A
flash of red whipped between two trees in front of me, stopping me in
my tracks. I pressed my palms into my eyes. When I let go, tiny white
flecks danced around my vision like fireflies. After a moment, my
eyes regained their focus, but not before I stumbled, tripped over a
tree root, and fell squarely on my arse. Something uncomfortable dug
greedily into my thigh. I pushed the huge rock away and rubbed my leg
furiously, knowing that was going to leave a bruise. Great.

The
ground was cold and hard and dampness seeped through the seat of my
shorts. I rolled to one side, ready to push myself back to my feet,
but what I saw stole the air from my lungs and I fell back to earth
with a thud.

Was
it a girl or an angel? Surely, normal
girls didn’t glow like that? I lay on the hard ground, transfixed
and completely unable to move. Watching me from a short distance away
was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life.

Author
Bio:

Danielle
Belwater adores the concept of true love and thoroughly believes
everyone has their Prince Charming or Snow White out there somewhere,
even if they have to fight demons, ghosts, and wizards to find it.

Danielle
has been having a love affair with words since she was young and in
primary school, writing some rather imaginative tales. This love has
followed her into adulthood.

She
lives in rural South Australia with her husband, young daughters and
way too many animals to mention. She spends most of her time dreaming
up characters, stories, ghostly tales, and watching Firefly re-runs.
She also cooks the odd meal for her family to avoid them looking like
skeletons at official author functions! Danielle
is passionate about reading and her interests include pretty much
anything with words from rolling four volume epics to the daily
newspaper.